The present invention relates in general to the processing of dough for the making of bread and bread products, and in particular, to a new and useful dough portioning machine having a rotating cutter.
The making of dough using flour, water and other ingredients, and the subsequent processing of the dough to make bread and bread products such as rolls and the like, has been the subject of mechanization for many years. See for example, the dough processing equipment of U.S. Pat. No. 2,660,131. U.S. Pat. No. 3,927,611 discloses an apparatus for degassing dough by subjecting the dough to compression within a screw conveyor. U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,611 discloses a cutter for portioning dough.
Although a variety of mechanisms are known for portioning or separating a large mass of dough into smaller portions of dough which are rolled and otherwise processed, many problems remain.
One problem concerns the need for cutting or dividing the dough in such a way that all portions are equal. The dough should also be cut in a manner which yields a dough portion which can quickly be rolled into a substantially spherical shape for subsequent processing. The cutting operation is also preferably conducted without the use of oil as a lubricant. The cutting rate must also be as high as possible without mechanically damaging the dough and without materially increasing its temperature. The risk of damage and mechanical considerations place an upper limit on the cutting rate for all currently existing cutting equipment which is below a desired maximum rate for the equipment.
To avoid excessively high capital expenditures, the cutting equipment should also be simple and should be usable with relatively inexpensive support equipment such as degassing and dough rolling devices. This also reduces energy costs in operating the equipment.
The type of mechanical and thermal damage which is experienced with some existing cutters involves the destruction of the natural gluten found in the dough. Gluten is the tough, viscid substance remaining in the flour after it is washed to remove starch. The gluten is very sticky and allows the dough to become homogenous. The more gluten available after the cutting and rounding process, the more pliable is the dough. The availability of gluten also acts to retain gas within the dough portion, in which yeast cells grow, to expand the dough to a large final volume. This produces a more symmetrical and satisfactory end product. The presence of gluten also reduces cracking in the skin of the product when receiving its "oven spring" (that is the jump in height experienced by dough when subjected to heat in an oven).